Staff augmentation is when a company hires temporary staff to help complete projects.
The main purpose of staff augmentation is to quickly find and hire new staff at short notice. It helps acquire staff with specialist skills and expertise that are hard to find in permanent employees. It also increases the workforce without the need to commit to a permanent employee and pay benefits like sick leave and holidays.
There are unique advantages and challenges with staff augmentation. It is cost-effective for short-term projects, but it can be more complicated and expensive than hiring permanent staff.
In this article, you will learn what staff augmentation is, how it works, its advantages and challenges, and how to choose a staff augmentation partner.
What is Staff Augmentation?
Staff augmentation is when a company uses outside personnel to boost its workforce. These temporary staff members work for the company for a few weeks, months, or even a year.
Since augmented staff are not official employees, they may need access to the same systems as your employees to integrate smoothly with your team.
Depending on how you acquire augmented staff, you might be responsible for onboarding and managing them, ensuring they are paid correctly and on time. This gives you more control over your temporary staff, but you are also accountable for their performance.
How Does Staff Augmentation Work?
To hire augmented staff, a company needs to follow several steps. These steps should be done in order to understand why you need additional staff, secure the right talent, and ensure they integrate well with your team.
Hiring augmented staff should be a collaborative process. Involve both higher-ups and the team that will work directly with the augmented staff. Everyone’s input is important, regardless of their level of involvement with the temporary staff. This approach ensures you gain the full benefits of staff augmentation.
Here are the steps to follow for flexible team augmentation services.
Identify the Skill Gaps in Your Existing Resources
Determine what skills or expertise your current team lacks that augmented staff can provide. Consider the specifics of your project and the tasks that need outsourcing.
For example, if your project involves developing an iOS mobile application, you’ll need a team skilled in programming languages like Objective-C and Swift.
Consult with the team and project managers to identify the specialist skills and knowledge required.
Find and Hire Temporary Staff
To find and hire augmented staff, you have a few options.
If you have an in-house HR department, they can handle the recruitment process. This includes writing the job description, advertising the role, screening candidates, and hiring the best fit. This works well if your HR team can manage recruiting temporary staff.
If you lack the time and resources to recruit, consider an IT staff augmentation company. These companies have a talent pool of qualified augmented staff. They cover various fields, like software QA, testing, programming, UI/UX design, and AI.
When you contact a staff augmentation company, tell them what you need. They will prepare a shortlist of candidates based on your requirements. You can interview these candidates and provide feedback until you are happy with your choices. The company will ensure a smooth transition and that the augmented staff have what they need to start working.
There is plenty of remote augmented staff available, so you have many options. You are not limited by regional restrictions, making it easier to fill technical roles without relocation costs.
Maintain Communication with Your Augmented Staff
The best way to maximise the benefits of your augmented staff is to keep clear and open communication. Stay in touch with them regularly, whether daily or weekly. Ensure they understand their role, performance expectations, and how their work fits into the overall project.
Use team collaboration software to stay connected. Examples include Slack, Monday, and Trello. The key is for both your in-house team and augmented staff to communicate on the same platform. This allows you to assign tasks, monitor progress, and provide feedback easily.
Some staff augmentation services offer their own project management tools and managers. These tools help you track your project’s progress. You can see what your augmented staff are doing, how well they are performing, and what their next tasks are.
Once the project is complete, the staff augmentation company will handle the transition of staff back into their talent pool.
What Are the Pros & Cons of Staff Augmentation Services?
Staff augmentation can help enhance your workforce in many ways, but it also brings certain risks and challenges. Being aware of these risks can help you prepare and steer clear of potential problems. Here’s a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of staff augmentation.
Pros of the Staff Augmentation Model
- Your company can quickly upscale without the lengthy traditional hiring process. An outsourcing vendor can handle candidate preparation and transition for you.
- Access specialist skills, knowledge, and expertise that are hard to find in permanent employees. You only pay for the time you need these specialists, which saves costs.
- Diversify your talent pool and increase workforce flexibility. Augmented staff can bring new ideas, problem-solving methods, and innovative approaches. They complement your existing team and can drive surprising results.
Cons of the Staff Augmentation Model
- Augmented staff might not always match well with your in-house team. To avoid this, it’s important to specify the type of worker you need. This clarity helps your staff augmentation partner select the best candidates, letting you make the final choice.
- Augmented staff may lack the deep, ingrained historical knowledge of a project that your in-house team has. This includes existing code, UI, design elements, and known bugs. To avoid this, ensure your augmented staff is well-briefed on the project’s history and technical specifications.
- Bringing in outside help can raise the risk of data breaches and leaks of sensitive information, such as Intellectual Property (IP). Your contract with the staff augmentation partner should include rules and procedures to protect against these digital risks. It should also have a clause for legal action in case of an unauthorized data breach. Additionally, limiting access for augmented staff to only what they need can help prevent such breaches.
Is Staff Augmentation Right for Your Company?
Bringing augmented staff into your company is a big decision. When done right, it offers many benefits. You get specialist talent, enhance your existing workforce, and hire staff only for the needed period, saving costs.
However, be aware of challenges like miscommunication and data privacy concerns. Clearly outline role expectations, have a solid contract, and maintain regular communication to ensure success.
At EZtek Software, our staff augmentation services make expanding your IT workforce stress-free. We provide the software development skills you need to complete your project on time and within budget.
Tell us what you need, and our project managers will send you a list of potential candidates. You can interview them and choose the best fit for your project. We handle the formalities, making them a natural extension of your team. You can stay in touch with them through our project management tools. Once the project is complete, we transition the staff back to our talent pool, ensuring they no longer have access to your systems.
For more information about our IT staff augmentation services, contact us today.